The best and worst of your horses career....

[NewHeights_SJ]

As Fee and i seem to go from one extreme to another, i wondered if everyone else would like to share their best and worst memories of their competiton career?

I have only had Fee a year, but my best memory is getting around our first newcomers (and my first ever!!) in October last year. I think i had 12 faults, but that didnt matter and i actually cried when i came out of the ring.

The worst has to be just recently, coming back after a small break over christmas and not being able to get round a 1m course without getting eliminated. Realising that perhaps i had pushed up too soon and needed to get the basics right first.

Oh and there was also one terrible day last year at Keysoe where i got eliminated in my first class, then again in my next class at the first fence!!!

What are your best and worst memories?

 

[Bossanova]

With Boss-

Best- Tbh there were several but maybe..... completing our first intermediate, 1 down sj clear and very much inside the time xc. Jumping double clear in the only 3 day we managed to stay sound/ well enough to do. Going clear round some really tricky intermediate tracks- including Highclere, Brightling and Bicton (in really, really difficult conditions)

Worst- Without a doubt, Salperton AI where I had to admit defeat and retire him from competition. Tbh, the first time he napped at a competition was totally gutting as I realised his heart was no longer in it.
I had several other crap days where he ran away with me on the cross country and/or blew up in the dressage.

 

[legend]

My worst was being eliminated from the MK3DE at the first steeplechase fence, having done months of prep, hired a lorry, etc etc and had been lying 3rd after dressage....I even have it on dvd.

The best I'm not sure of as most of the time he's an absolute dude and I'm usually so proud and thrilled with him!

 

[dieseldog]

Best with Dolly, everything, she never did anything wrong and made me feel fab. Worse would be her being lame, wins BSJA one day the next she is written off for a year.

Dolly's best moments would have been before I owned her, she won a lot of 1.30s, she won 5YO classes on the Sunshine Tour and the next year she was winning 6YO classes in Spain. She just tries really hard and is so special needs.

 

[kerilli]

worst - undoubtedly, falling on the flat when up on the clock 3 fences from home at my first 3 star with my wonderful mare, who i'd produced from a baby. she was going so brilliantly, all the direct ways, just lost her footing and tried to stay up but down we went... she so didn't deserve it. she then showjumped appallingly the next day because she'd pulled all her back muscles as she fell (passed the trot up though, such a toughie), and i could have cried - she was usually such a reliable showjumper.
umm, best: coming 5th at her first 3-day at Osberton 2*, coming 7th at my first ever 3-day at Tweseldown 1* with my first good eventer, doing very difficult direct routes that hardly anyone else tried all day... too many to mention, really. there have been a lot of highs to compensate for the lows.

 

[gigs]

The worst getting kicked whilst turning out one of my horses-breaking 5 ribs and puncturing my lung resulting in weeks in hospital .
The best taking on the local Spanish in a feria and getting 4th place out of approx 150 horses with my super horse Gigilo

 

[RachelB]

Best: coming second in unaffiliated prelim dressage, because Maiden suddenly produced this fabulously correct working trot out of nowhere and all I had to do was attempt to get her to canter properly!
Worst: the next time we went out after coming second, was after she tore her tendon. She had come sound and I got a sixth (I think) in the first class, then the second one I got comments of "unlevel" and "looks uncomfortable on left rein", and I took her out of the school after and she was really sore on the stones. I think I rode her only a couple of times after that (to keep her lame for the nerve blocks, so not happy rides) and then she was diagnosed with a torn tendon.
I am grateful that she has retired happily and I can keep her with me, and I look forwards to getting a new horse and posting good show reports again!

 

[jellybaby]

Best.

Winning 2 of 3 classes entered at Bicton Show Jumping one weekend. Getting Cowbag her BE points, Cowbags amazing dressage ability, 10 dressage points in one day (2 classes)

Worst:
Cowbag not running at Lanhydrock BE as she had been in a horsebox accident on the way and had broken her leg. She was supposed to be ridden by my trainer that day. Turning another horse over at Lanhydrock BE and us both coming off pretty bad.

JB xx

 

[Louise_88]

Best - probly was when i got my highest place in a BE intermediate last year. wasn't so much the fact i came 3rd it was the fact that my horse only had one fence down SJ and his previous rider, who was there on there own horse, commented on what i wonderful job i had done with him because he has always been a very difficult horse in the showjumping, that doesn't sound great but it was for me. Also flying round our first advanced just having a trip at the 2nd to last jump and me falling off, not great again but he flew round all direct apart from that.

Worst - Would have to be on the numerous occasions where i have done a very good dressage test to lie in the top few and then for the showjumping to go awful (Finn hates showjumping) or for me to make a rare but none the less idiotic and costly mistake in the XC and it's usually always infront of YR selectors

 

[seabiscuit]

Best moments;

Lulworth Castle Intermediate with Trev...he had done a reasonable dressage, the most superb clear, the best round of my life in the SJ around what I thought was a huge track, and then he was just FLYING round the cross country meeting every thing on a perfect stride... till I went down the wrong side of the white string lining out the courses,,,,had to double back and got time penalties...therefore putting me out of the placings

Highclere Intermediate with T- again a resonable dressage, one down showjumping, and then XC, a fantastic clear around those HUGGGE fences until the 3rd last fence....a tall brush arrowhead out of the water...T knocked it hard , dropped a shoulder, and I had a flying fall.. Was so gutted. That huge course and my little pony had excelled himself beyond belief for the second time now, and I had absolutely nothing to show for it.

Sansaw CCI *- awful dressage, but the most AWESOMe cross country round. That round was just the ride of my life, after flying round the steeplechase, and galloping round the roads and tracks on Phases A and C (!!) on the XC he was just sailing and flying everything. All these tricky combo's and huge, huge fences. In the most awful mud. I so nearly fell off in the water near the end but managed to cling on for dear life.Was such an amazing round I'll never forget it! Wow. He finished full of running. Because so many people had had had a lot of trouble on that cross country, as the conditions were awful, and it was a tricky track, we pulled up 40 places after the XC to 18th place..

SJ the next day they kept changing the timings... my mother had decided to go to the launderette in the village to clean some things ready for the SJ ( everything was so muddy, there was so much mud) she thought she would have plenty of time... but they changed the timings of the SJ, moved everyone back several hours... everything went wrong...I had no helper. First thing that happend was that Trev put his foot down on his stud spanner, and broke it off at an awful angle so that it was sticking out of his foot..he couldnt walk on it...cue major panic trying to locate a farrier...the sec's tent was miles and miles away...I was all on my own..time was ticking...

Eventually found a farrier to sort it, managed to get studded up/tacked up, cantered miles to the SJ to warm up for my round..que panic. No Curb chain on my pelham. I had forgotten it. No-one around to help me,no one who had a curb chain.
I had to go into my SJ there and then, and didnt have enough control, so I had two fences down. Was knocked out of the top 20 placings.
I was devestated.

Third most awful/highlight moment. The Pony club Area Horse trials with T. T had done the most awesome dressage test and was in the lead. He had flown round this tiny easy course with ease. SJ was the last phase to do. One of the PC mothers adjusted my curb chain for me before I went it. Guess what happened? Well the curb chain hadnt been put on properly, and it flew off near the beginning of the round. Had no control again, and had two fences down.

Was relegated to second place and missed out on qualifying for the Pony Club Area Horse Trials Championships.

Oh and there was the time where I nearly won a Novice at Goring Heath with T. We had leading dressage mark ( ahead of Andrew Nicholson !) jumped a lovely clear SJ. Was still in the lead! Sailed round the XC. Thought we;d gone clear. Thought we had won.
Nope was eliminated for missing out a fence near the end!!

And then there is the two times that Owen was in the lead after his dressage and SJ at his two Intro events last year, only to refuse to go down some poxy tiny step or go through a petty water jump and get us eliminated, when he quite happily wouldve jumped all the normal jumps.

So an awful lot of highs and lows!!

 

[Fiona]

Best...
Getting placed her first intro with my trainer, and completing my first intro on her with clear XC.

Worst...
Getting eliminated our next event (horse eating monster in trakhener don't you know).

More ups than downs overall, but she isn't exactly straightforward. opefully she has grown up over the winter.

FIona

 

[Baydale]

Best: winning the £1000 advanced class at Belton (my local event) 2yrs after my Badminton disappointment (below) and beating Pippa, Mary, Blyth, Leslie et al. Very very proud of him for that. Also being 20th at Bramham and winning the Pro-Am competition with Andrew Hoy as my partner. I then got a letter from the selectors saying our performance was "highly promising" and that they would be "watching with interest in the future". OMG

Worst: after lying 13th (not v lucky) at Badminton with a 45.8 dressage, William got as far as a simple triple bar over a ditch and said "no thanks". He'd already done the quarry, coffin and the water but wasn't feeling quite right. I thought it was nerves (his and mine) but it turned out his immune system was knackered after he'd had strangles after Bramham the year before. Basically his system couldn't cope with getting 3 or 4 star fit so that was the end of his three day career.

I love that horse.

This is also the same horse that, having been placed 2nd at novice level twice, then got eliminated at two events on the trot.....now there's some fuel for the anti-Cleveland Bay peeps!

 

[JenHunt]

with my current one -
BEST - getting to BRC champs
WORST - then having a tantrum in the showjumping getting us a totally unnecessary 12 faults!

with my warmblood -
BEST - completeing a pony club 2 day event and coming 3rd - the only placing i got with him eventing.
WORST - knowing that was the last event i'd do on him before he was sold.

with my little 14.2 welsh cob -
BEST - just too many to list. beating a load of big horses over a 3'6" SJ track given i'd taught him to jump, or knowing he'd do anything for me, or riding him bareback when i dislocated my knee and had it in plaster!
WORST - either going to get him in one day to find him on 3 legs after puncturing his fetlock joint (he was sound the next day tho!) or seeing the state of him when we first got him (all skin and bone and a bag of nerves)

 

[Mamamia]

Worst - getting eliminated at Tweseldown a couple of weeks ago for 3 stops at the coffin - she was first after dressage and sj and had schooled there a few weeks ago - grrrr

Best - everything else she does is usually fantastic

 

[Baggybreeches]

Holly
The best would be my first Novice BE on my mum's mare, it took me about a week to stop talking incessantly through excitement!!
The worst would be missing out on getting a point on the above horse after a rare SJ clear at Aske Hall, we had a really silly run out at the last fence XC. The only good thing was that is was before intro was invented and it meant that mum could do intro the following year on her, because she had no points!
Sov
The best has yet to come, but up to now winning a SJ class at Aintree before xmas.
The worst was at Oasby when after travelling for bloomin hours so he could have a nice run, he threw a wobbler in the SJ and got E for continued disobedience.
Touchy haha there is no best and worst with her you just take her as you find her!